AOL Blocked 500B Spam E-Mails in 2003

AOL blocked more than 500 billion spam e-mails in 2003, or more than 15,000 per member, the Internet service provider said.

It blocked as many as 2.4 billion e-mails in a single day. In all, AOL said it blocks more than three-quarters of the e-mail sent to its members.

AOL also announced the top 10 spam subject lines, based on e-mail forwarded by its members. The list includes "Viagra online," "online pharmacy," "as seen on Oprah" and "work from home." AOL did not rank the terms by volume. AOL said its members reported as many as 20.4 million unwanted e-mails a day.

Spammers turned more to including random characters, white spaces and misspellings to try to fool spam filters, the company said. The federal spam law that took effect Jan. 1 bans deceptive subject lines but is unclear on whether this includes such tactics.